MONDAY, NOV. 30, 2009

Gov. Butch Otter's "efficiency" Web site has received 217 money-saving suggestions for state government so far, as of this morning. An initial look shows ideas ranging from cutting the pay of the state's highest-paid employees and elected officials to bringing back time off for good...

Former seven-term Idaho Congressman George Hansen has lost an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court to get out of repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars to an Idaho couple he swindled in a investment scheme. Hansen was first ordered to repay Ann and the late...

THURSDAY, NOV. 26, 2009

In the depths of the recession, Sun Valley ski resort is doing something most resorts aren't doing these days - celebrating the opening of a $10 million-plus, eight-passenger gondola that will whisk skiers comfortably up to its Roundhouse Restaurant and Seattle Ridge area runs, a...

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 2009

Gov. Butch Otter's transportation funding task force will hold its third meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 2, starting at 10 a.m. at the J.R. Williams Building in Boise. A national consultant and former Utah transportation director will make a presentation about transportation funding across the country;...

The Idaho Supreme Court has upheld a Rexburg urban renewal project in a case that was being closely watched by urban renewal agencies around the state. In a unanimous ruling authored by Justice Joel Horton, the high court upheld a 7th District Court ruling rejecting...

TUESDAY, NOV. 24, 2009

Idaho's state Department of Correction says the case of Cody Vealton Thompson, who was convicted by an Ada County jury Nov. 17 of raping his cellmate and attempting to intimidate a witness, is the first conviction of an inmate for raping another inmate inside an...

With two lawsuits pending against Kootenai County mortgage modification services and several other investigations ongoing statewide, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden is calling on Idahoans to beware of companies that offer to help those facing home foreclosures - for an up-front fee. "Most of the...

Legislative budget director Cathy Holland-Smith, right, and budget analyst Paul Headlee, left, work on budget issues amid the boxes on the third floor of the state Capitol today. Legislative Services workers were the first to move back into the newly renovated Capitol and go to...

Former Idaho Transportation Director Pam Lowe, in an interview with NPR Boise State Radio's Don Wimberly, talked about her dispute with the state over her firing - a dispute that's resulted in a wrongful-termination lawsuit - and her reasons for going public over the dispute....

MONDAY, NOV. 23, 2009

There's nothing in the record that shows why lawmakers passed legislation in 1993, with only one dissenting vote in either house, to ban severance payments to state employees who leave voluntarily. There was little discussion in committee, where the bill passed near-unanimously. But a look...

2nd District Rep. Mike Simpson hasn't endorsed a candidate in the Republican primary for Idaho's 1st District congressional seat, spokeswoman Nikki Watts said today. "Mr. Ward asked Congressman Simpson if he could use his name on the event invitation for the event in D.C., and...

The Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill is reporting that U.S. House GOP leaders are lining up behind Vaughn Ward in the Republican race for a chance to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick, though state Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, says he'll also be jumping...

The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation has announced it'll put up to $20 million into a big new push to try to get Idaho kids to go on to higher education after high school. That's a goal that was put front and center by Gov....

Two state laws are at play in the issue of recent state purchases of PERSI service for certain retiring employees: 67-5342, which bans any severance pay to a state employee who leaves voluntarily, and 59-1363, which covers purchases of additional membership service by a PERSI...

SATURDAY, NOV. 21, 2009

Idaho state agencies have spent more than $125,000 in the past six months to boost the retirement accounts of three departing employees, including one agency director - though Idaho state law bans all severance payments to state employees who leave voluntarily. Gov. Butch Otter's administration...

FRIDAY, NOV. 20, 2009

ITD said today that the reason it'll pay new Director Brian Ness $22,000 a year more than fired Director Pam Lowe is because it negotiated a salary designed to be a substantial increase from Ness' current salary in Michigan, after accounting for higher costs of...

It's a milestone for the two-year renovation of the state Capitol: The project has been declared "substantially complete," and the building is now back in the hands of the state, rather than the contractors. There's still final work and move-in work going on, however; the...

ITD has corrected the salary figure it supplied to Eye on Boise late yesterday for new Idaho Transportation Director Brian Ness - it's not $160,000 a year, it's $165,000. That makes it $22,000 more than the salary paid to the previous director, Pam Lowe.

Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, who's led work on the ITD budget in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee for the past four years, said, "On the basis of what I've read about the new director, I am very pleased, because ... it's my opinion that the...

The Idaho Fish & Game Commission today extended the state's wolf hunting seasons in all of its still-open zones to March 31; all but two had been scheduled to close Dec. 31, while the Lolo and Sawtooth zone hunts already were scheduled to go to...

Idaho Senate Transportation Chairman John McGee, R-Caldwell, had this to say on the appointment today of Michigan transportation official Brian Ness as Idaho's new transportation director: "I'm excited that we're heading in a new direction. I'm pleased to see that the process is over, the...

Newly named Idaho Transportation Director Brian Ness, who will start work Jan. 11, told Eye on Boise, "My focus has to be on moving the department forward, and that's what I intend to do." Asked why the longtime Michigan transportation official decided to apply for...

Yesterday, in response to a request from the Lewiston Morning Tribune, which has been editorializing against Gov. Butch Otter's silence on the firing of former Transportation Director Pam Lowe and her wrongful-termination lawsuit against the state, Otter issued the following statement:"I support the decision of...

The Idaho Transportation Board has named Brian W. Ness, an administrator with the Michigan Department of Transportation, as its new director. Current acting director Scott Stokes will return to his position of deputy director in early January as Ness takes over. Click below to read...